Denture adjustment device



March 1950 v. s. ROUBIAN 2,929,143

DENTURE ADJUSTMENT DEVICE Filed Sept. 12, 1955 FIG. I.

INVENTOR VAHE S. ROUBIAN ATTORNEY United States Patent O DENTUREADJUSTMENT DEVICE Vahe S. Roubian, Manhasset, N.Y.

Application September 12, 1955, Serial No. 533,647

1 Claim. (Cl. 32-1) This invention relates to the art of denture, bothnatural and artificial, adjustment devices and it particularly concernsa novel device for grinding or abrading the chewing or biting surfacesof both natural and artificial teeth.

The present practice is to mark the high spots or areas of the coactingsurfaces of both natural and artificial teeth and then to grind downthese high spots or areas until an optimum level or relationship isattained. This may call for several steps in the process of attainingoptimum results, since there is always the danger of grinding too muchaway and then leaving low spots or areas. The common practice to achievethis result is to place a sheet of marking paper between the upper andlower sets of teeth and the patient is requested to bear down upon it.The high spots will become marked and the low spots will not. The markedspots will now be ground down slightly, to avoid overdoing it, and againmarking paper is placed between the teeth to determine whether any highspots still remain. This process or procedure is repeated time and againuntil the desired result is attained.

I have invented a novel denture adjustment device which does not requirerepeated marking of the teeth in order to determine the presence andlocation of high spots. The present invention employs an abrasive paperor cloth in the general U-shape of a set of teeth. The abrasive sheetmay have a single abrasive surface or two abrasive surfaces. Abrasivesof dilferent grit numbers may be used. The abrasive material may befabricated from an abrasive type of hardware cloth or mesh. In use theabrasive member is placed between the teeth whose bite is to be adjustedand the teeth are ground together until the abrasive removes all thehigh points and the bite is equalized.

It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide a dentureadjusting device in the form of a flat U-shaped abrasive sheet.

it is a further object to provide a fiat U-shaped abrasive device havingone or two abrasive surfaces for adjusting the bite of a denture.

It is a further object to provide a means for adjusting the bite of adenture while the teeth are closed and being moved in a grinding motion.

Other and further objects and advantages will become apparent from thefollowing description taken together with the drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of one form of device embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on lines 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Figs. 3 and 4 views correspond to Fig. 2 and show modifications of theinvention.

Fig. 5 is a plan view of another modification of the invention.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken on lines 44 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary view corresponding to Fig. 6 showing anothermodification of the invention.

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged scale of the embodiment ofFig. 5.

In Figs. 1 and 2 are shown a flat U-shaped member 10 which has twolayers 11, 12 of abrasive material such as quartz, emery ground glass,garnet, aluminum oxide, Carborundum or the like disposed on oppositesides thereof. The layers are bonded to flexible paper or cloth supports13, 14 which are cemented together by an adhesive layer 15.

In Fig. 3 the device is shown formed with a single layer 12 of abrasivematerial bonded to support 14. The exposed surface of the support sheetis free of abrasive.

In Fig. 4 the abrasive layers 11, 12 are bonded to the single supportsheet 14.

In Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8 the fiat U-shaped device 10' is formed from a meshmaterial 16 which can be Woven with cotton, plastic or other filamentarymaterial coated with abrasive particles 17 such as emery or the like.The mesh has about 25 filaments to the inch, so that there are about 25spaces S per inch in each direction.

In use as above mentioned, the abrasive member with one or two abrasivesurfaces as required is placed between the teeth of a patient with thecentral line L of the U-shaped member centrally disposed on thecorresponding central line of the teeth to be ground. The patient thengrinds his teeth in a firm side to side or circular movement as requireduntil the bite is equalized by removal of the undesired high points. Ifdesired the patient can be provided with abrasive members havingabrasive surfaces of different degrees of coarseness. Initially thepatient will use the coarser abrasive and then change to finer abrasivesas the grinding procedure requires. Since the abrasive is carr'ied by asomewhat flexible support it will conform to the uneven surfaces andelfectively abrade the high points while the patients jaws are tightlyclosed. Of course if the denture or teeth to be abraded are mounted in ajig external of the patients mouth, the same or similar grinding motionwill accomplish adjustment of the chewing surfaces of the teeth asrequired.

The flexible mesh material shown in Figs. 5-8 pro- I vides the advantagethat as the abrasive particles and the particles of tooth materialbecome loosened they enter the interstices S between the filaments 16 soas to leave the abrading surfaces of the material clear for effectiveand efficient grinding action. The mesh material 16 may be provided witha plain paper or fiber backing 18 as shown in Fig. 7 so that only onechewing surface of the opposed teeth is ground when the abrasive deviceis in use. This layer may be a pressure sensitive masking tape which canbe removed if desired.

Of course the denture adjustment device may be used for natural orartificial teeth. In any case the abrasive selected must havesufi'icient hardness to abrade the chewing surfaces with maximum speed.

It will be apparent to the denture adjustment device herein disclosedeffectively accomplishes its objectives in a simple and economicalmanner. The device is low in cost and sanitary. Use of the devicerequires no special tools and skill as are required in prior knowndenture adjustment procedures.

Although a limited number of embodiments of the invention are disclosedthese have been shown by way of illustration rather than in a limitingsense. Many changes are possible without departing from the invention asdefined by the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed and desired to protect by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

A method of determining the presence and location of 3 high spots on thecoacting surfaces of upper and lower References Cited in the file ofthis patent sets of natural and artificial teeth and eliminating said vhigh spots, comprising the steps of placing abrasive sheet UNITED STATESPATENTS material between the upper and lower teeth and abrading 81,986Crane Sept. 8, 1868 the teeth against said material until any high spotsbe- 5 1,138,479 Hough May 4, 1915 tween them are ground down. 2,633,637Lucia "I. Apr. 7, 1953

